The Internet brings about its own formats and protocol (a.k.a. “netiquette”). Many mistakes are being made – most of which will result in flame wars. There is no need for that if you understand a few simple basics. Most of these will help you as well as protect you

So how do you find your way around the net without getting stuck in the chatbox juingle?

The number one thing to find out is exactly what facilities you are using. Most chatboxes, groups, forums, blogs and discussion lists for example are run by indivual people, usually set up to cater their (personal) specific wants and needs. Nothing wrong with that, but if you are looking for information rather than online scening, you may want to opt for facilities, run by organizations. These usually also have much clearer guidelines.

Step number two is probably even more important: never assume! In other words, if your first experiences on the net taught you to always be polite and act as a slave, you will probably find that the more serious facilities will want you to be a human being. In other words, do not automatically assume slaves or subs always have to use “i” instead of “i” or that dominants should always be addressed as “master”. In fact, the more serious facilities HATE that. When in doubt, simply ask!

“gorean behavior” for example is perfectly okay in a Gorean environment. It usually is not in other facilities.

Regardless of what facility you are using: always adhere to the rules for that particular box or list. Don’t try to change or even discuss such rules. People will only find you annoying. If you are a member of a Gorean chatbox (Gorean BDSM has very specific rules and rituals), don’t discuss these. If you don’t like what you see, simply find another facility.

The Online Scene

If online scening is what you are looking for (and it can be a lot of fun to do), you should really seriously try and be serious about it. Even if it is “only” online, be serious. Once you have made sure that scening is allowed (in many cases it is not, please respect that), you will do wise to adhere to what has grown to be the more or less standard protocol for Internet scening.

Since chatting and similar facilities only have language to work with, a specific writing style is adopted, basically because one has very little other options. So subs or slaves never use capitals when speaking about themselves, while doms will do exactly the opposite. A sub’s style should be deliberately humble and somewhat overly polite. However – we cannot stress this enough – make sure you limit this to online scening only.

Again, all chatboxes usually have very specific rules and guidelines. DO adhere to them or simply find another box or list. There are tons of them.

All articles are provided for informational purposes only. We cannot be held responsible for any use or misuse you make of the articles, nor can we be held responsible for any injures or other results that the article might make / cause.

The above article is a reprint from our information/educational site Kink Culture.
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Copyright © Hans Meyer